This week on Digital Music Trends it was a real pleasure to welcome direct-to-fan expert Jessie Scoullar (Wicksteedworks.com) and supreme tinkerer Syd Lawrence (Wemakeawesomesh.it) to the show.

We start by chatting about Beats, as the acquisition gets regulatory approval in Europe and Vivendi declares the sale of its 13% share in the company to Apple, Ian Rogers is reportedly going to head both Beats Music and iTunes Radio, what could that mean for the company?

We also chat about Samsung finally introducing a premium tier for Milk (with a twist), Shazam’s Mac app – creepy or cool? – and its new Resonate product, Rhapsody’s mini acquisition spree with Exfm and Soundtracking and what Apple’s acquisition of Swell could mean – do we need more integration between spoken word and music content?

On top of that my guests chat about their latest projects which are very very cool. Syd talks about Basement Jaxx’s Power To The People project that just launched today, allowing users to contribute to the track and remix the contributions that will go towards the release of a charity single – check it out on http://www.powertothepeople.fm.

Jessie chats about her “Which Platform?” report that compares the most prominent direct to fan platforms analysing pretty much every aspect of what they offer so you can make an informed decision. Check out http://www.wicksteedworks.com/report/ for more info and to get a free sample.

And that’s all for this week. I really hope you’ll enjoy the show, have a fantastic week and ’till next time!

On this week’s show of course the we cover the short-lived possibility of Twitter acquiring SoundCloud, the lawsuit against Beats Music, the Michael Jackson hologram at the Billboard Music Awards, the majors making an investment in Shazam, and Lovelive tv launching on LG smart TVs.

I really hope you enjoy the show and please do send any feedback you may have on what we talked about or on stories we may have missed out on to contact@digitalmusictrends.com or to @digimusictrends on Twitter.

On this week’s show of course the we cover the short-lived possibility of Twitter acquiring SoundCloud, the lawsuit against Beats Music, the Michael Jackson hologram at the Billboard Music Awards, the majors making an investment in Shazam, and Lovelive tv launching on LG smart TVs.

I really hope you enjoy the show and please do send any feedback you may have on what we talked about or on stories we may have missed out on to contact@digitalmusictrends.com or to @digimusictrends on Twitter.

On this week’s show of course the we cover the short-lived possibility of Twitter acquiring SoundCloud, the lawsuit against Beats Music, the Michael Jackson hologram at the Billboard Music Awards, the majors making an investment in Shazam, and Lovelive tv launching on LG smart TVs.

I really hope you enjoy the show and please do send any feedback you may have on what we talked about or on stories we may have missed out on to contact@digitalmusictrends.com or to @digimusictrends on Twitter.

Of course we open with a discussion on the Beats Electronics/Music and Apple acquisition story, which has generated a significant amount of press whilst unconfirmed by either company.

We also chat about the successful Kickstarter for a limited release of a rare Aphex Twin record, news on the anti-piracy front as we look at a study from Sweden that shows the impact of the iPRED law, the new HADOPI guidelines and the UK ISPs considering sending some letters to naughty customers.

Finally we chat about Last.fm as it just emerged that Spotify tried to acquire the company before it got hold of The Echo Nest. In between these stories of course the interviews with Yonder and Dubset Media.

I really hope you enjoy the show, have a fantastic week and ’till next time!